Executive Summary
Mythology typically elucidates historical events of ancient characters to represent beliefs, practices, natural phenomenon and institution that are related to religious beliefs and rights. The mythology had an immense impact on art and literature during the Decadence era as it gave rise to the concept of Symbolism in Europe. Decadence was an era towards the end of Eighteen Century that emerged during the industrial revolution in Europe. Decadence is heavily linked with symbolism. Symbolism links the ancient mythology with imagination to form art and literature. Symbolism is an artistic and literary movement that emerged in the group of few French poets that spread across the Europe in paintings, novels and theatre. Artists, who consider themselves symbolist, express the emotional experience by suggestive and subtle use of a language, which is symbolized. After the emergence of the ancient Greek Mythology to the European world, painting, music, literature, theatre and plays took a complete turn. It gave rise to the concept of symbolism, which emerged amongst French poets and gradually to the entire Europe.
Mythology & Symbolism within Art & Literature during the Decadence Era
Influence of Mythology in Art/Literature Up to the Mid 1800s
Mythology typically elucidates some historical events of ancient characters to represent beliefs, practices, natural phenomenon and institution that are related to religious beliefs and rights. Mythology articulates an interesting story that always had immense impact on the art and literature (Barzun 272). Today, people extract the answers of their critical knowledge from science and technology, but ancient Greek relied much on their produced myths to seek answers. It expounded that how the world works and what needs to be done if something wrong happens to them. The mythology had a great impact on the English Literature until the mid of 18th Century. It is the result of raw imagination on experience or historical facts. It quenches the thrust of humans for various ontological queries thought an appeal source of imagination. According to Charles Mills Gayley, myths are not made but they are born. This notion identifies that myths are somehow surrounded by sanctity. Mythology is widely linked with rituals and many famous writers have portrayed this relation in their works.
Decadence was an era towards the end of Eighteen Century that emerged during the industrial revolution in Europe. The word decadent was given to artists who preferred artifice to the earlier artists who were romantics. Decadence is heavily linked with symbolism. Symbolism links the ancient mythology with imagination to form art and literature. Symbolism was against realism and naturalism. It was created in favor of imagination and spiritualism. Odilon Redon and Gustavo Moreau was the two main symbolist Painters during the decadence era. Gustavo Moreau’s main emphasize was related to the depiction of mythological and biblical figures. This depiction was carried by the element of imagination.
With Classical antiquity’s rediscovery in the Renaissance and Ovid’s poetry became the major force in the imagination of artist and poets. It served as a fundamental source of diffusion, which remained active until mid of 18th Century. Many English artists during the Decadence era took inspiration from the Greek mythologists and they portrayed their literature and art in connection with various Christian themes. Some of the few examples from the paintings are: Apollo and the Nine Muses, Dead Poet Borne by Centaur, Death of Sappho, Galateia, Oedipus and the Sphynx, Perseus and Andromeda, Young Thracian Woman Carrying the Head of Orpheus and more. Some of the few examples from literature are Beyond History by Mikhail Mikhailov, "Prehistoric Man" by Wilhelm Bitner, “Tale of a Mammoth and an Ice-Man” by Pyotr Dravert and more
During the 18th Century, there was a philosophical revolution in the Europe with the spread of enlightenment. Although, they inspired from myths of Greek by it was also accompanied by the philosophical and scientific achievement of Rome and Greece. Many dramatists in Europe took the Greek Mythologies as a raw material and they successfully wrote literature like Mozart’s Idomeneo, Handel’s Operas Amaneto and Semele, and Gluck’s Iphienie en Aulide. During this period, the Europeans translated many literature found in Greek to English. This in turn gave emergence to many contemporary poets like Byron, Keats, and Shelly (Berkoff 134).
Until the Renaissance revisited in Europe, all the major works done by Greek civilization was almost non-existence and it was extinct. Europeans discovered the works of Greek philosophers and Greek tragedies, which was previously concealed by political powers, when Greek was revolting against Turks after 400 years. During this period, many renowned figures including Lord Byron were much interested in these works and he begun to translate and analyze them. During this period, many painters and experts in literature began to pick the elements of the Greek Literature and applied it into their respective imagination and spiritual believes. This gave rise to the movement of symbolism, which expressed their spiritual believes, practices and traditions though symbolism.
How Mythology and Symbolism Tie Together?
Although, Mythology and Symbolism are two different concepts but they are also considered to be part of each other as they are bound an integral relationship. Mythology is the collection of myths that represent some sacred story about how the world and is make and how everything words. Example of myths includes the myth of anthropogony (human being origin), myth of theogony (God’s origin) and the myth of cosmogony (world origin). On the contrary, Symbolism depicts the same concept but through personal imaginative expression. The content and details of dogma, theology, and religious teaching also guides the formation for traditional symbolic representation (Brendel 176). For example, Bodhisattva theory (budda to be), Buddhistic Karma-samsara (law of reincarnation, and cause and effect), Day of Judgment according to Christian teachings, purgatory and hell, eternal reward, and punishment for sin.
Symbolism is an artistic and literary movement that emerged in the group of few French poets that spread across the Europe in paintings, novels and theatre. Artists, who consider themselves symbolists, express the emotional experience by suggestive and subtle use of a language, which is symbolized.
The movement of symbolism emerged in response to its revolt against the orthodox themes and techniques that have been followed for a long time in the French Poetry, which is also elucidated in the explanation of Parnassian poetry. This was done to give liberty to the poems from formalized oratory and expository function, which is done to explain rather than fleeting (Diel 78). It helps to give a pure sensation and revitalization to man’s experience and inner life. It is attempted to remind sense impressions to the inner life of man and ineffable intuitions. It communicates the mystery of human existence by highly and free philosophical use of images and metaphors that will communicate the same scene or message that is there in his mind.
Implications of Mythology
After the emergence of the ancient Greek Mythology to the European world, painting, music, literature, theatre and plays took a complete turn. It gave rise to the concept of symbolism, which emerged amongst French poets and gradually to the entire Europe. According to the manifesto of Symbolism, the arts should be expressed in a true form and articulating it indirectly is only the way to do it. It gave rise to the concept of metaphors and writing in a very suggestive manner. It emerged the concept of free verse in the poetry and gave immense liberty in other form of art. Free verse is a form of poetry that does not follow traditional parameters to of rhyming and other vital rules. It presents the human idea a natural and philosophical manner without any though to deceive. It helped people to think freely and to present their ideas in any way they want to articulate it. The arts form that is based on symbolism was inclined towards evoking people rather than describing certain thing. The symbolic language speaks the mind of the artist. This presentation comes directly from the soul. These art forms assisted the artists to transfer their true thoughts, beliefs, feelings, and experience directly to the people. Symbolic artists normally took their character inspiration from the mythology that helped them to transfer this unique experience.
It helped Mythology can be considered as the core concept and symbolism is its imaginative expression. In case of the painting, “Apollo and the Nine Muses”, these muses were the deities that gave immense inspiration to artists, poets and literacy experts. Another example is of “Death of Sappho”. Sappho was a very famous Greek lyric poet and the decadence symbolic represented their imagination to create a sketch of her when she died. Although, the symbolism took its direction from the literacy theorists and poets, but it also emerged as a movement against Realism and Impressionism, which were considered a very influential movement at that time (Jullian 224). This implication was majorly in paintings and stories but it also had its major influence on many other literacy circles.
Conclusion
The mythology had an immense impact on art and literature during the Decadence era as it gave rise to the concept of Symbolism in Europe. Symbolism links the ancient mythology with imagination to form art and literature. Symbolism was against realism and naturalism. It was created in favor of imagination and spiritualism. Many English artists during the Decadence era took inspiration from the Greek mythologists and they portrayed their literature and art in connection with various Christian themes. Although Mythology and Symbolism are two different concepts but they are also considered to be part of each other as they are bound an integral relationship. Mythology is the collection of myths that represent some sacred story about how the world and is make and how everything words. Symbolism is an artistic and literary movement that emerged in the group of few French poets that spread across the Europe in paintings, novels and theatre. Artists who consider themselves symbolist express the emotional experience by suggestive and subtle use of a language, which is symbolized.
Works Cited
Barzun, Jacques. From dawn to decadence: 500 years of western cultural life: 1500 to the present. New York: HarperCollins, 2000. Print.
Berkoff, Steven. Decadence. Cambridge [eng.: Proquest LLC, 2009. Print.
Brendel, Otto. Symbolism of the sphere: a contribution to the history of earlier Greek philosophy. Leiden: Brill, 1977. Print.
Diel, Paul. Symbolism in Greek mythology: human desire and its transformations. Boulder: Shambhala ;, 1980. Print.
Jullian, Philippe. Dreamers of decadence; symbolist painters of the 1890s.. New York: Praeger, 1971. Print.
